After yesterdays faffing about with lowering materials down,
things could hopefully only be better today. I arrived with Pete at the shaft
top and lifted the cover up, shortly Karli and Sal joined us. Pete and I then
abseiled down, followed by some more materials, a bag of scaffolding and four
more timbers. Sal then abseiled down and lastly Karli. There was no point in
all of us hanging around the debris pile, so it was decided that Karli and Sal
would start putting in the scaffold frames to the side of the debris pile
whilst myself and Pete went up stream to see how far the level went. This time
we were armed wit ha gas meter. Out of interest, the oxygen reading at the
shaft bottom was 17.5%, quite a surprise to us.
We headed up stream
and slowly the oxygen level dropped. At about 300m it was down to 16.9%, but
thankfully there was no imagining's of poor air affecting us like last time.
The level up to this point was in excellent condition with no fractures in the
concrete arching and the only falls encountered were small ones that occurred
in the concrete arch breaks - nothing major at all. Maybe another 100m on and
the level widened out, we had come to a siding. The walls were covered in
graffiti, but non of it was very legible. The points were still in place, but
towards the end of the siding a large fall greeted us. Pete scrambled up it and
looked over the other side, the water was backed up a little but thankfully the
shale was very large in size and most of the water was getting through without
causing a back up. The oxygen level here was 16.7%, past the fall the water was
indeed not that deep - at most up to knee level. Carrying on, no more falls
were encountered, but the level got a bit lower and made it more awkward.
Finally we emerged out of the level into an unsupported section of passage,
here as expected there was a lot of shale on the floor. This section continued
for around 50m, once at the end of it we saw the continuation of the arching -
however it only had around 5cm or airspace. The oxygen level here was 16.4%,
and as we stopped for a breather (is that a pun?) it dropped by a few tenths of
a percent. We made our way back to the shaft bottom, where the air was
definitely sweeter. Along the way some graffiti was noticed that had been
chiselled into the shale.
Once back, we dropped down into the debris
chamber to see how Karli and Sal had got on. They had progressed really well
and were just finishing the last set of scaffold frames. Time for a break, time
for a lunch break, time for a lunch pic. After lunch we piled into the chamber
and started slotting in the first timbers, these with the scaffold frame would
give us protection against the debris pile moving. A bit of adjustment was
needed with some of the uprights on the frame, so that the timbers sat against
them, but nothing to major. In the end everything was slotted in nice and
tight. We did a bit of tidying up, and a channel was dug into the floor so the
water was clear of the timbers and frame footings.
With the grill nicely
exposed now, it was time to do the last bit of work - opening it up.
Unfortunately there was no way to get past it and the only way it could be done
was to remove some of the upright bars. At first we had visions of having to
saw them, but the timber frame was fragile and with a bit of persuasion the
bars came out easily enough. Finally we had an entry point into the passage
down stream, the start of the incline to Nentsberry Hagg's Shaft. Sal went in
first and her first comment was, it smells in here, never mind that - what can
you see woman! Karli went in, then me and Pete. Directly behind the grill there
was a little chamber and then the level curved away to the left, it did not
look promising. The level was very silted up with mud and fine timber pieces,
the walls and parts of the floor were covered in calcite, it was clear no one
had been here in a long time. Karli decided to try and go along the level, Pete
followed him and they managed about 10m or so before turning back. It looked
like it sumped out. Not exactly what we had in mind when we started this little
project .
Disappointment? Yes and no, I suppose when we first saw the
grill we got visions of getting into the incline for some distance, but there
always was the risk of finding what we did. However, we had accomplished all
that we had set out to do; concluding the upstream part and getting into the
level beyond the grill. Any takers for unblocking the downstream silt? Dynorod?
Finally we gathered up the remaining scaffold poles, clamps and tools and
loaded them into the big builders bag at the shaft bottom, Karli prussiked up,
followed by Sal and me. Pete was last, and had the job of making sure nothing
snagged. It was a while before the bag came to the surface, even with a 3:1
pulley system it took a lot of effort. A late finish, however we had a great
meal to look forward to, drink, bonfire and some professional
fireworks. |
